


darling (so it goes)

by rories



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Camping, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 21:17:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13108698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rories/pseuds/rories
Summary: some things are meant to bethor, loki, sif, and the warriors three go camping.  it's just the push the universe needed.





	darling (so it goes)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_ufo_party](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_ufo_party/gifts).



> this is...pretty different from most of my other sifki fics, but i kind of like it! i hope you do too!

Thor is the one that suggests the camping trip in the woods on the outskirts of Asgard. Hogun agrees right away, his voice steady and with the ever stoic look on his face. Sif is next to chime in in agreement and Loki is soon to follow. It takes Volstagg a little convincing, but Thor assures him they will go boar hunting and soon he’s on board. Fandral is a little harder to convince and it takes all four of them cajoling him before he finally caves to pressure and agrees to go. 

So the five of them head out to find a perfect camping spot, not too far into the woods, but far enough that they’ll get the whole experience. It doesn’t take them long to find a small meadow, deep in the woods behind the palace, near a stream, and with enough trees to provide a decent amount of cover. 

It’s later in the day when they finally make camp, all of them sweaty and tired as they drop their packs on the ground. But the air is crisp and clean and they can hear the murmuring of the stream not far from them. Thor barely takes a moment before he’s taking a deep breath and clapping his hands together. 

“This is perfect!” he exclaims, oblivious to the others still trying to catch their breaths. “Loki, if you would,” Thor says, turning to his brother. 

“If I would what?” the younger boy asks, still hunched over with his hands on his knees. 

“Put the tents up, of course!” By now, the rest of the party are staring at the two of them. 

“You put the tents up!” Loki rebutts, but it’s weak and lacks conviction. 

“Can’t you just…?” Thor pauses for a second before waving his hands around in a poor attempt to mimic Loki’s magic. 

Loki looks at him incredulously for a moment before bursting out in laughter. He looks at the other members of the group, the Warriors Three straight faced, but he can see Sif trying to hide her own laughter. When he looks back at Thor, his brother is glaring at him. 

“That’s not how magic works, brother,” he finally says, catching his breath again. “Unless you want to wake up under the stars, we should probably put the tents up the old fashion way.” 

Thor huffs out a breath and mutters “Fine” before turning to his pack to pull out his tent. 

Loki is still laughing, trying to tamp it down and failing. “Did you think I could just...will them together? That’s...not how magic works.” 

Sif can’t hold back her laugh anymore and lets out a loud giggle, and Loki can feel a blush creeping up his cheeks when he catches her eye. The Warriors Three just look to each other for a moment before moving to help Thor put up the tents. 

It doesn’t take them long to put up the tents side by side in the middle of the clearing. Loki steps back when they are done, a look of triumph on his face at their handiwork. He’s impressed even himself, though he does notice that his tent sags a little where the others’ do not. But no matter because it’s something he can say he did, something he can take pride in. Other than with his growing magic, that feeling of accomplishment comes few and far between these days. 

Before long, the rest of the group have their tents put up and Thor asks for volunteers to go get firewood. He and Volstagg have plans to go hunting, so Loki says he’ll stay near camp and gather some branches. Sif also volunteers to stay and though Loki tries to convince her that he doesn’t need help, Thor butts in in agreement. 

Which is how Loki found himself walking side by side with her only half an hour later, arms laden with sticks she had found. Loki had to admit, Sif was great at spotting pieces of wood that would be great for the fire. Every piece Loki had picked up had been too damp, too small, or too rotten. He’s quickly realizing, between how out of breath he’d been on the trek up to their camping spot, how hard it had been to put up his tent, and now, how bad he is at picking out kindling, that perhaps camping is not for him. 

But still, he finds himself having a good time, and he’s starting to think it’s less the experience, and who he’s experiencing it with. He and Sif had gotten along fairly well in their youth. She’s always been more Thor’s friend than Loki’s, and other than that incident with her hair, he thinks she likes him. She at least puts up with him.

And she hasn’t stopped talking with him the entire time they’ve been collecting sticks. She’s talked about Thor and the Warriors Three and her training and her parents and Asgard and Loki has done nothing but listen. He’s shocked to find that he rather enjoys listening to her blather on. 

They’ve been collecting wood for almost an hour and Loki’s arms are starting to get tired. They still have to walk back so he butts in to her tirade about the Valkyries to suggest heading back to the campsite. 

“That’s probably a good idea,” she says in response, turning quickly on her heel to head back the way they came from. “Sorry, by the way. I kind of just kept talking.”

“S’okay,” Loki says, following closely behind her. He can’t help but admire the way that she looks from the back, but his eyes dart away from her when she turns to look at him. 

His attempts to not get caught looking when she turns back causes him to stumble and before he can react, his foot gets caught on a root and he falls forward. There’s thankfully no snap, but he can feel the muscles straining beyond their max and he bites back a cry of pain as the kindling goes flying. 

“Loki!” Sif drops to her knees next to him, knocking branches out of the way to help him roll over. He’s gritting his teeth against the pain and his cheeks are red from embarrassment. He can’t seem to look Sif in the eye as she fusses over him, grabbing his leg to assess the damage. 

“That was graceful,” Loki says, though his voice is laced with pain. 

“Let’s get you back to camp,” Sif says in response. She helps him stand and leaves him to wobble momentarily while she gathers most of the wood back up. When she’s done, she tucks her shoulder under his arm to help prop him up. He leans heavily on her, but she can take it and she doesn’t mind how warm he is against her. 

It takes them some time, but they eventually make it back to camp and Sif dumps the wood in the middle of the clearing for someone else to deal with. She helps Loki into his tent, directing him to lay back while she grabs a bandage from the wound kit she’d thought to pack. It’ll help with swelling and stabilization, but the medics back in Asgard will be able to heal it better when they get back. 

She’s explaining all of this to Loki as she starts wrapping his foot and she notices that he still hasn’t looked her in the eye and has been sighing heavily since the walk back. 

“Why did you even come on this trip?” Sif asks, wrapping a bandage tight around Loki’s quickly swelling ankle that’s resting in her lap. 

“What? Why wouldn’t I?” Loki scoffs, leaned back on his hands and trying to ignore the way Sif’s hands feel wrapped around his leg. 

“Well, you don’t like camping, for one,” she says, stretching the bandage out in front of her. “You haven’t spent any time with Thor, you can’t stand Fandral and Volstagg, you barely tolerate Hogun, and you don’t like me, so-”

“What?!” he exclaims, cutting her off and sitting up so suddenly that she misses his ankle with the wrap and has to start over. “You think I don’t like you?” 

Sif pauses in her work and avoids Loki’s eyes. She takes a deep breath and lets it out through her teeth before continuing. “You always...I don’t know, you’re not very nice to me,” she mutters, no conviction in her voice. 

Loki scoffs and leans back on his hands again. “I’m not nice to anybody,” he says before laying fully back. He moves his other leg, the one not resting on Sif, out from under him, stretching out fully, tall enough now that he’s almost able to touch both ends of the tent. Sif does her very best to ignore the way his shirt rides up when he stretches his arms above his head, but his pale skin is bright against the dark shirt he always seems to wear. 

“So, you do like me then?” she asks hesitantly, tucking the end of the wrap in on itself to keep it tight. 

This time, when he sits up, he’s only inches from her face, and his blue eyes catch her hazel ones. “Sif,” he starts before swallowing hard. “You’re about the only thing in this realm that I like.” 

Sif ducks her head and tries to hide her smile, but she can feel his gaze on her. She fights down the blush on her cheeks and looks back up at him, giving him a soft grin before pushing him back down, laughing when he lands with a thump. “Hey, I’m injured!” he says with a grin and she just laughs again. 

She’s feeling bold with this new knowledge of his feelings for her, so she maneuvers herself to lay next to him. She feels him tense for a moment before relaxing again and she gets even bolder by grabbing his hand. 

Sif has known Loki all their lives, so she knows that he is not much for physical contact. She’s only ever seen him hug Frigga a few times and never Thor or Odin. So she’s shocked that he let’s her hold his hand and then also, amazingly, squeezes it a few times, like he’s trying to make sure she’s real and there. 

She’s smiling to herself at the ceiling, thinking about these subtle shifts in their relationship, when she hears him rustling and then feels his gaze on the side of her face. 

“What?” she asks, and her voice is lower now in this atmosphere. 

“Do you want to see something?” he asks, voice just as low. 

Sif only hums in response, but Loki takes that as a yes. He slowly brings his other hand up, parallel to the top of the tent and closes his eyes and concentrates. He’s still learning this trick, but judging from the gasp that Sif lets out, it’s worked. 

When he opens his eyes, the entire tent is glowing from the stars of the universe he’s projected to the ceiling. There are galaxies swirling, deep blues and purples pulsating along with their heartbeats.

He turns his head to look at Sif again and is struck by her beauty. He had thought that the universe above them had been beautiful, but Sif, the stars reflected in her eyes, is a vision. He can’t stop looking at her, not even when she turns her head and catches him. 

“Loki, it’s…” she wants to say beautiful, but that doesn’t cover it. Besides, it’s nothing compared to the way he looks right now, pure adoration directed right at her. He takes her breath away. 

“I can teach you how to do it,” he whispers and she’s just now realizing how close they are to each other.

“It’s okay,” she replies and then takes her chance, leaning forward to press her lips to his. She watches his eyes flutter closed before she allows her own to and then presses further into him, bringing her other hand up to caress his cheek. 

After a few moments, they pull away, both breathing heavily, and when Sif opens her eyes, the stars above them are gone, replaced by the ceiling again. 

“I have to be concentrating on my spells to keep them up,” he says at her confused look. “And you are a distraction.” 

She wants to kiss the smirk off his face so she does, smiling against his lips in satisfaction before pulling away again. She looks back up at the ceiling, pushing in close to Loki and letting him wrap an arm around her. “Can you bring it back?” she asks.

He doesn’t answer, just lifts his hand again and projects the universe once more. She sighs in contentment and pulls the covers over them as he points out different constellations. 

When Thor and the Warriors Three return hours later, it’s to find a pile of sticks in the middle of their camp and Sif and Loki curled in to one another in Loki’s tent.


End file.
